What bad coffee and great rolls do to the mind
By Fred Steiner
It's all Greg Ring's fault.
His wife, Mary, prepared the most divine breakfast rolls of 2010 for our family. Greg dropped off this artistic work on his way to church. Ah, now for a good cup of coffee. The day - heck, the week - will be complete with this combination: hot rolls and coffee. The problem is, I can't make a decent cup of coffee. Can't put my finger on the reason. But my coffee rests in the C- grade range. I know this because no one will drink it. Not even my daughters.
As I moaned this fact, suddenly, like the birds swooping down to my bird feeder, visions of Bluffton's professional coffee drinkers came into view. I wondered, what secret formula do these drinkers possess that I fail to grasp?
The list of persons with whom I've consumed the roasted bean with reads like the Bluffton phone book. And their coffee is always better than mine. This is so, even if they didn't make it. Simple sitting at a table with them, made the coffee taste better.
First to mind came, Deb Beer, who only drinks Columbian. Drank her coffee for 10 years while employed at 101 N. Main St. She turns the pot off soon after the first cup is poured. Great coffee.
Next, Lawrence Matthews, Bluffton hands-down coffee drinking champ, certainly has a winning formula. What is it Lawrence, six, seven cups a day?
The list continued: Pete Suter, the father of Bluffton coffee, then, Kim, the mother of Bluffton coffee. Suddenly my mind cranked out a long list of Suters and Sutters, most having nothing do to with coffee drinking. Bob, Bill, Steve, Penny, Lyle, Evelyn. Bob and Bill caused me to ponder brothers who live in Bluffton. I pictured Jeff and Joe Laing, Jim and Larry Kinn, Roger and Scott Edwards, Dave and Chris Moser, Shawn and Jay Stratton, Dave, Bob and Ed Fett, Steve and Dave Stratton, Wally and Darrell Buroker.
Next came a list of women who I think are sisters, but aren't...Mandy Kinn and Deb Wentz, then actual sisters, Janette Reineke and Bev Amstutz, Mary Fett and Susie Gilliland, the Towne twins, Rhonda Wenger and Robin Miller...then other Robins, Bowlus and Wilch, sisters who live on the same street, Sally and Marsha and then more twins, Jenny and Beth Sylak, Abbie and Beka Trollinger, Amber and Aaron Shelly, Kristen and Ashley Luginbuhl.
On my third cup of bad coffee and great rolls I started wondering if there are any Bluffton Democrats who became Republicans and Republicans who became Democrats. This list, as interesting as it sounds, will be published 25 years after my death.
Then a very obscure list, which I could not create, included questions. Do any Bixels live on Bixel Road? At a stretch, Betty Heiks' house (now Don and Elaine Brubaker's) is on Bixel. She was Bixel. Darvin Luginbuhl lives on Lugibill Road or yet another spelling. I'd need to consult Everett Collier or Denny Edinger at the PO. Heck, they could tell me if a Shifferly lives on Shifferly Road and if a Geiger lives on Geiger Street or ever did. But that thought is for another day.
The coffee cup emptied itself and it was time for another roll.
What's your coffee-making formula? Share it at [email protected]
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Stories Posted This Week
Friday, April 4, 2025
- Robert "Bob" O. Town served in the U.S. Navy
- Applications for Bluffton community pool jobs due April 10
- Bolen sentenced to 19 years to life in prison
- Tornado in Putnam County on April 2
- Pirate boys tennis edges Indians
- Brendon Matthews named Chief Executive Officer at First National Bank
- BHS spring musical is Bringing Down the House
Thursday, April 3, 2025
Wednesday, April 2, 2025
- Tornado Watch issued for Allen, Hancock, Hardin and Putnam counties at 9:15 p.m. on April 2
- Flood Warning issued for Allen County at 11:03 a.m.
- Pirate tennis loss at Elida
- Pirate softball loses opener to Ada
- Pirate baseball falls to Ada
- Allen County will not test warning sirens on April 2
- March 2025 land transfers in the Bluffton Exempted Village School District
- April 22 crash report shows driver hit N. Dixie home
- Bluffton High School Honor Roll announced for 3rd quarter of 2024-2025
Tuesday, April 1, 2025
- Obituary for Betty C. Mumaugh
- Leo Club supports Bluffton Clean Up
- Wind, rain and potential flooding for April 2
- Grandey to major in education, play basketball at John Carroll
- Pirate tennis blanks Bath
- Pirate baseball sweeps opening twin bill vs. Pandora-Gilboa
- “I Have Not Forsaken the Word of God” reader's theater, April 13
- Easter Cantata performed on April 13 in Pandora